Glass fibers have been used to reinforce various polymeric resins for many years. Some commonly used glass compositions for use in reinforcement applications include the “E-glass” and “D-glass” families of compositions. Another commonly used glass composition is commercially available from AGY (Aiken, S.C.) under the trade name “L-Glass.”
In reinforcement and other applications, certain electrical and thermal properties of glass fibers or of composites reinforced with glass fibers can be important, especially for printed circuit board substrate. However, in many instances, the manufacture of glass fibers having improved electrical and thermal properties (e.g., lower dielectric constant, lower thermal expansion coefficient, etc.) can result in higher costs due, for example, to increased batch material costs, increased manufacturing costs, or other factors. For example, the aforementioned “L-Glass” has improved electrical and thermal properties as compared to conventional E-glass but costs significantly more as well as a result of substantially higher temperature and energy demands for batch-to-glass conversion, melt fining, and fiber drawing. Fiber glass manufacturers continue to seek glass compositions that can be used to form glass fibers having desirable performance related properties in a commercial manufacturing environment.